BTC BRIEF: A Pathway to Poverty - 3 Reasons Why Tennessee is a Bad Role Model for North Carolina's Economic Future

By Allan FreyerPolicy Analyst, Budget & Tax CenterJune 2013

In the current debate over tax reform, legislative leaders frequently hold up Tennessee as a role model for improving North Carolina’s economic competitiveness and ensuring future prosperity. But a look beneath the surface reveals that the Volunteer State has the wrong kind of economy to emulate—Tennessee models a pathway to poverty, not a pathway to prosperity.

Tennessee’s economy is not performing as competitively as advertised, either in job creation or economic growth.

The jobs created in Tennessee are almost entirely in low-skill, low-wage industries that have kept poverty higher and household incomes lower than in North Carolina.

Low- and moderate-income families in Tennessee pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the wealthiest state residents, aggravating inequality in the state.